Well, here I go again.  There’s a lot I don’t like about multi-show auditions and even less I like about prepared monologues in a community theatre setting.  I’ll start with the second issue:  prepared monologues vs. cold readings. 

Maybe it’s because much of my training as an actor was in improvisational theatre, but I never did very well with prepared monologues.  When I was performing, the attitude I always took to cold readings – which I always found to be a great deal of fun, even if I didn’t get a part – was that I learned how to read somewhere in first and second grades, so the words shouldn’t get in the way.  But this issue isn’t about technique as it is about process. 

Please indulge me a very brief but well-meaning commercial.  In my Unalterable Principles of Community Theatre for the 21^st Century, which can be found on my website at http://www.concepttoexecution.com/ - www.concepttoexecution.com (hit the link to Community Arts Organization Kibitzer) there are two important issues I deal with:  process and accessibility.  In community theatre, the process is as important as the product and if there are critical flaws in the process, a community theatre will begin to see a decline in participation, which in turn will have a profound impact on the artistic product.  To me, prepared monologues are a professional process (I might turn your attention to my rant about professional vs. amateur on page 3 of the “directors stipends” topic under the Money Talk heading of Theatre Administration section of these boards) and demand a level of artistic proficiency that becomes an obstacle to getting new people involved.  One of my other principles is that we must be accessible and that has a great many meanings.  In this case, one of the important roles a community theatre has is to make the theatre accessible to all – including the novice.  Prepared monologues present an obstacle to such individuals.  For the newbie, not only is preparing a monologue an incredibly threatening prospect, for many, most, if not all, they won’t even know where to start! 

I also believe that multi-show auditions smack a bit of a regional professional theatre process.  But more importantly, I think they, too, create obstacles to involvement.  We live in a very fluid society where the complaint of our era is there’s just not enough time.  Making time commitments is a struggle for many.  I know very talented actors who might be able to do just one show a year, depending upon the demands of the rest of their life.  Very often, they’re just not sure when that time of year will be.  So to look out over the expanse of an entire season becomes a major obstacle to them.  I think there are far more of these kinds of people than anyone might think.  Then there is the fluidity part of this.  People are moving in and out of jobs, and homes and communities, at unprecedented levels.  By casting a whole season ahead of time, you not only increase the risk of losing an actor due to some life-changing event, but you run the risk of losing new talent due to the limited accessibility.  And finally, when that novice does get the nerve to call your theatre on the phone to find out about getting involved, if that call comes out even one day after the auditions, they’re going to have to wait almost a full year to have the opportunity.  So much for striking while the iron is hot. 

From a marketing point of view, there is an important problem with both these issues.  Whether it’s a commercial operation or non-profit, volunteer-driven community theatre, one of the things so many businesses of all sorts fail to realize is that they must make it easy for customers/constituents/participants to buy, rent, or otherwise take advantage of their product, service, program.  And very often, that means making more work for the business.  We get wrapped up with our internal bureaucracies about what’s the best/easiest process for the organization instead of what’s best/easiest for the customer (and community theatre must begin to look at their “customers” not only as the audience, but also as their volunteer base – their participants).  The challenge is that sometimes, the needs of the organization are at odds with the needs of the market, but that, too, is an entirely different topic.

I believe that both multi-show auditions and prepared monologues are detriments to the essence of community theatre and would encourage any community theatre that uses either or both of them to reconsider their process.

I believe that both multi-show auditions and prepared monologues are detriments to the essence of community theatre and would encourage any community theatre that uses either or both of them to reconsider their process.